Paul Starick: Labor’s ambulance ramping promise sidelined for nuclear-powered submarines and hydrogen power plant

Labor claims health remains its number one priority but the Premier’s major focus has been elsewhere, writes Paul Starick.

“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose. I am resolved that we shall win the tomorrows before us.” United States President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Thanksgiving speech, November 28, 1963.

Just four days before he won government in a landslide last March, Peter Malinauskas was interviewed by The Advertiser – the conversation lasted an hour.

Asked what his first priorities would be if he was elected Premier, the first things he would do when he got into office, Mr Malinauskas rapidly fired back, slapping the table: “Start to fix the ramping crisis”.

His emphatic response echoed the Labor billboards plastered across most corners of the state ahead of the March 19 election. “ Labor will fix the ramping crisis,” they read. Below the block-letter type was a picture of a smiling Mr Malinauskas.

Labor’s election poster.

Fast-forward a year and Labor is changing the goalposts on its ramping promise, just after Mr Malinauskas returned from a whirlwind United Kingdom visit wildly enthused about the Adelaide construction of nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS security pact.

There is more than an echo of President Lyndon Johnson – who Mr Malinauskas revealed in that pre-election interview as one of his political heroes – in this tactic.

Time has marched on. Yesterday – or last year – cannot be changed, for better or worse. But three years remain until the next election. Labor wants to win the tomorrows before them.

The promise to “fix the ramping crisis” cannot be undone – this was the campaign’s centrepiece vow. A year out, the crisis shows no signs of being fixed. Mr Malinauskas cannot afford to be seen as a politician who breaches his promises.

Premier Peter Malinauskas spent a night with paramedics in an ambulance on June 4, 2022. Picture: Brenton Edwards

So, muddying the waters has become the name of the game. Mr Malinauskas, Opposition Leader David Speirs and their respective spin doctors have all been plucking out year-old quotes from transcripts that suit their ends.

On Tuesday, Health Minister Chris Picton argued fixing the ramping crisis was always going to be measured by ambulance response times. “We are saying exactly the same today as we did before the election. We were clear during the election our plan to fix the ramping crisis which we clearly said was bringing ramping down so ambulances can respond to cases as they did back in 2018. Before the election Peter Malinauskas was repeatedly asked what was meant by ‘fix the ramping crisis’ and was clear that it meant reducing ramping to the point that we can ensure ambulances respond to priority cases as they did back in 2018.”

The Liberals seized on Mr Picton’s comments, abandoning parliamentary question time on Thursday to unsuccessfully move a no-confidence motion against him.

This was a rowdy, entertaining session for political enthusiasts and students from the two schools occupying the public gallery.

But the crucial sound bites were largely drowned out by catcalling from both sides. Speaker Dan Cregan ejected MPs 23 times in an hour – some of them twice – for up to 15 minutes. Liberal health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn was left with only six minutes for her speech after being booted out twice.

Liberal health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn and Opposition Leader David Speirs at a press conference. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

Opposition Leader David Speirs, in one of his most accomplished speeches in the top Liberal job, declared there were “no asterisks” or “no nuance” to Labor’s “absolutely iron-clad” promise to “fix ramping”.

“The Premier promised South Australians that he would fix ramping but ramping has gotten worse than ever under their leadership,” Mr Speirs thundered.

The key question is what all this means to voters now – and in an election in three years’ time – in March, 2026. Health unions might make life uncomfortable for the government but it’s inconceivable they would abandon the ALP in favour of campaigning for a Liberal government.

Labor’s 2022 election campaign succeeded so dramatically because it was fuelled by the ambulance union – ambos are much more trustworthy and believable than most, particularly MPs.

Mr Malinauskas has been focused on submarines and Labor’s planned hydrogen power station, even if he told parliament on Thursday there was “absolutely no resiling from the fact that health is our number one priority”.

This coming Wednesday, he will give his first “State of the State address” to the independent Committee for Economic Development of Australia – more than 700 people have already booked to attend. This hands the Premier a prominent platform to further obfuscate the health promise by talking about jobs, the economy and cost-of-living.

Without results, though, trust can evaporate quickly. Voters expect Labor to “fix the ramping crisis” and, ultimately, will pass judgment based on this promise.